So called movable wall structures are conventionally used in order to divide large enclosed spaces into a plurality of smaller rooms or to cover walls. They are substantially constituted by frameworks composed of uprights, which are secured between the ceiling and the floor, by possible cross-members arranged between pairs of uprights, and by panels which are applied and secured to the uprights in various manners. The panels may be made of an opaque material, e.g. wood or synthetic material, or of a transparent material, such as e.g. glass or Plexiglas®.
When building a large partition, a number of panels are assembled end to end between two uprights. In such a case, it is desirable to avoid gaps between two adjacent panels, for aesthetic and insulation reasons. Therefore, a connecting profile is generally inserted between the adjacent peripheral edges of two successive panels. However, depending on the manufacturing tolerances, the size of the panels may vary from one panel to another, whereby the size of the gap between two panels may also vary. This is a recurrent problem, which complicates the assembly of such structures, since the connecting profiles provided for the panels of a given structure are generally of a single type with a unique thickness.
WO 95/32343 describes a modular partition system wherein adjacent edges of two neighbouring panels are assembled by means of coextruded, siamesed frame members. Such siamesed frame members consist of two identical frame members, which are U-shaped in cross-section, and each have a bottom transverse wall and a pair of upstanding parallel side walls in a spaced apart relationship defining therebetween a longitudinally extending channel for engaging a respective edge of a panel. A flexible web interconnects the siamesed frame members, and constitutes a hinge allowing to locate the frame members at different angular relationships The flexible web is arranged in such a way as to not line up with the mouths of the channels, so that it forms a recess between the flexible web and the bottom walls of the frame members, that closely conforms to the outer configuration of a third, identical frame member, that can be nested therebetween to assemble panels in a T-shaped configuration.